(image: SETI)

BY GARY COTTON

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Shh...listen...can you hear the aliens? Well most can’t, but some are willing to pay a lot to listen. The SETI Institute is back up and running after falling on some rough times. KTVU reports...
 

“Since April the line has been disconnected. The Allen Telescope Array of 42 dish antennas, set up near Mount Shasta by SETI and UC Berkley, has been in ‘hibernation’ since state funding dried up.”

The funding should allow SETI to finish construction on the Allen Array -- the first instrument designed just for the purpose of listening to the skies. So who came to SETI’s rescue? KCBS has a representative explaining they were brought back by popular demand -- and by some celebrity support.
 

“We had a public fundraising campaign, it was called SETIStars and various people contributed their time and their money. Jodie Foster, other science fiction writers, and so forth. That’s raised a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and that is sort of the down payment on getting this antenna back up and running.”

Jodie Foster, aliens... Haven’t we seen this movie before? PC Mag points out the connection to one of Foster’s famous films.

“Jodie Foster, whose movie Contact focused on SETI's search for alien life and the fictional development of a spacecraft that took Foster's character, Ellie Arroway, on a journey to a distant galaxy.”

The SETI institute has never made contact with an alien, but they have connected with some strong advocates. The Christian Science Monitor reports...

“Other contributors...include science fiction writer Larry Niven and Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who wrote: ‘It is absolutely irresponsible of the human race not to be searching for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.’”

Still not convinced? Foster took to the SETI website herself explaining why we should all listen for aliens...

“The Allen Telescope Array could turn science fiction into science fact...I’m a SETIStar because...the ATA is ‘good to go’ and we need to return it to the task of searching newly discovered planetary worlds for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence...”
 

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